TACOMA — A Sequim High School graduate and former Sequim substitute teacher has been charged with the third-degree rape of two her high school students in Tacoma as well as sexual conversation with a former student, and ordered to return to her hometown. Meredith Claire Powell, 24, pleaded not guilty Friday in Pierce County Superior Court to the rape charges and to one count of communicating with a minor for immoral purposes after her arrest Thursday in Tacoma. The students were between 14 and 16 years old, Superior Court records say. Powell, a mathmatics teacher at Lincoln High School in the Tacoma School District since September , was released on her own recognizance and ordered to stay with her mother in Sequim. Prosecutors say Powell admitted to Tacoma police that she had sexual contact with two of her students between Jan. They allege that on Jan.

Meredith Powell, a former teacher at Lincoln High School in Tacoma, pleaded guilty to sex acts with students. This photo is from an earlier court appearance. Powell, 25, who pleaded guilty in July to on two counts of child rape and one count of communicating with a minor for immoral purposes, sobbed in Pierce County Superior Court as she apologized for her actions before her sentencing. Under the SSOSA, Powell will serve six months in the Pierce County Jail with 54 months suspended on the condition that she comply with court-ordered sex offender treatment, register as a sex offender, have law abiding behavior and have no contact with the minor victims. Failure to comply with any of the court ordered conditions can result in revocation of the SSOSA and Powell could serve the full 60 months. The Tacoma News Tribune said that after hearing Powell will spend only six months in jail, several friends of the victims cursed and one family member stormed out of the courtroom. Powell was arrested in February, shortly after the Tacoma School District got an anonymous tip that she was engaging in sexual contact with at least two students between the ages of 14 and

Tacoma Police arrested a Lincoln High School teacher Thursday who is accused of having sex with students, school district officials said. The woman, who began teaching in Tacoma in , was held Thursday in the Pierce County Jail on suspicion of two counts of third-degree child rape and one count of communicating with a minor for immoral purposes. She is not being named because she has not been formally charged with a crime. School district spokesman Dan Voelpel said officials at Lincoln received an anonymous tip Tuesday and notified police.

Meredith Powell, a former math teacher, pleaded guilty in Pierce County Superior Court to two counts of third-degree child rape and one count of communicating with a minor for immoral purposes. Sentencing was set for Aug. She faces a standard sentencing range of three years, 10 months to five years in prison on the charges, but her attorney told The News Tribune of Tacoma that lawyers would recommend she be sentenced to six months in jail and three years of sex offender treatment.